Saturday, December 6, 2008
Absolutely Absurd!
I got a kick out of reading the "Crime of Galileo." You can almost hear the "holy office" sputtering in protest at the "absurd" notion that the sun is in fact fixed and that the earth revolves around it. I'm sure that feeling like they were center of the universe was grounds for a lot of the self-righteousness I detected in it. Anything to make his "holiness" feel less significant must have been quite a blow. I was wondering what Galileo's punishment was since he was found guilty of heresy, so I looked it up: http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Galileo.html, an interesting read of Galileo's biography. He was sentenced to be imprisoned for life but it ended up just being on house arrest for the rest of his life. What boggles my mind is that it wasn't until 1992 that his name was "half" cleared! Pope John Paul II said that errors had been made by those who convicted him but never actually stated that Galileo had been wrongfully judged. Talk about beating around the bush! What, was he afraid of blatantly saying that "holy men" were wrong? Something I didn't get was where those men in Galileo's day said that what Galileo proposed went against scripture; that the bible said that earth was the center of the universe. Ummm... where? Never heard that one. unless I misunderstood their stance, I'm pretty sure the bible doesn't state "earth is the center of the universe."
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3 comments:
I am actually hearing the same things you are as i read this. It does make me chuckle some. I was very fascinated by this story from a young age and i remember my dad telling me about the stance of Pope John Paul II back when i was in Jr high. I think we even talked about it in science class. I think the big issue that they have with admitting that they made a mistake is that then they would have to admit to a whole lot more errors in judgement and they would also have to admit that the clergy as a whole is flawed.https://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif (heaven forbid that ever happens) I also realize that the story of Galileo is an example that anyone can be wrong (or right) I think it is a prime example as to why we need to be open minded in our life and understanding in our beliefs. you never know what will be discovered next and when your ideals will be questioned. And You know I don't remember that passage of the bible either.
This is a complex topic and I go into it more if you take my Reformation class, but I'll give one instance for you to consider.
Here's the quote from the Book of Joshua:
Joshua spoke to the LORD;
and he said in the sight of Israel,
"Sun, stand still at Gibeon, and Moon, in the valley of Aijalon."
And the sun stood still,
and the moon stopped,
until the nation took vengeance on their enemies.
Is this not written in the Book of Jashar?
The sun stopped in midheaven,
and did not hurry to set for about a whole day.
So, that's pretty explicit, isn't it? Joshua did not ask for the Earth to stop turning. The sun stopped. And the moon. And it is plainly said that this was unusual.
The thing to understand, as a historian, is that this passage had always been taken literally. Some portions of the Bible get interpreted as metaphor, as allegory, others are interpreted as exactly as stated.
For example, in this very passage, where the Bible refers to Gibeon, no one thinks that the reference is allegorical. That part is taken literally: there really was place called Gibeon and certain events transpired there. Gibeon isn't symbolic or something like that.
The bit about the sun standing still was likewise taken literally. Critics of Galileo pointed to the passage and said hey what about this? If you're right, Galileo what about this? Are you saying the Bible is wrong?
And here's something important to understand. Galileo not only didn't have an answer, he didn't even try. He dismissed his critics with his usual arrogance. His critics weren't worth arguing with. That sort of attitude isn't going to win you many friends, no matter how right you think you are.
Couple that with the fact that even if you accepted the Copernican theory, there were significant mathematical flaws (which weren't corrected until Kepler and then Newton), it's not hard to see why honest clerics might say Galileo was full of baloney.
As I said, the details are even more subtle, but I wanted to give a bit of an indication that this wasn't as simple as Bad Old Church versus Forces of Enlightenment.
Thanks Dr. Knox... I appreciate the insight! :)
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